Rooks shed a little less (7)
I believe the answer is:
castles
'rooks' is the definition.
('castle' can be a synonym of 'rook')
'shed a little less' is the wordplay.
'shed' becomes 'cast' (I've seen this before).
'a little' means to remove the last letter (the word is not quite complete).
'less' with its final letter taken away is 'les'.
'cast'+'les'='CASTLES'
(Other definitions for castles that I've seen before include "English homes?" , "Rooks" , "buildings" , "Keeps" , "Men" .)